Friday, December 9, 2016

Family Christmas Parties

Our first weekend of December was a busy one! We spent most of Saturday up at Spring Haven with our Nielson family. It was wonderful to see everyone and we had a special Christmas party planned around what would have been Grandpa Nielson's 100th birthday and Grandma's 96th birthday. 
Our kids were happy their cousins came!
Adam worked on his pool skills. 
Caleb never left the playground.
Angel and Zeke had quite the game of ping pong!
We got to watch a special slide show of Grandpa Nielson
Cute Grandma watching all the pictures of Grandpa. 
Caleb discovered the big kid games...

A Grandpa Nielson scavenger hunt!


There were several games for the kids to play that Grandpa Nielson would have played when he was a kid. Bingo, Jacks, Marbles, etc. The kids loved it and killed it in Jacks, thanks to Ma teaching them how to play this summer. 


Daddy and Clint chatting about life...


Singing Happy Birthday to Grandma, who sang "And not many more!!!"


I was glad to get a picture of this, since it's the favorite toy!
We rushed home from Spring Haven and headed to our ward Christmas party where the kids got to have a pajama parade.
Gwennie and Jade. These 2 sunbeams are trouble. Especially when they see each other in Sacrament meeting. 







Sunday we drove up to Ogden to see the Halvorson side of the family. Aunt Noni was in town, so we were glad to be able to see her. Tessa loves her grandparents. She was the first one to find Grandma Nielson on Saturday and she wouldn't stop hugging Gammy. I finally had to tell her to give Gammy some space. 


More happy cousins and lots of catching up for all the older cousins. 

It was a crazy, exhausting weekend, but were glad to see so much family!

December!

We started December with a bang! We began the Light the World program and have had such special opportunities to serve others this month. On the first day, Adam and Tessa loaded up several bags of canned food to donate to their school food drive. 
On December 1st, we went to the Living Nativity in Alpine. Ma, Pa and Aunt Katy joined us this year. 
Everyone loves the camels!
The kids got to try working in carpenters and blacksmiths shops. 


We love getting to see Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.


Mommy was making dinner one night, when the doorbell rang. I opened the door to find a cookie and a note on the porch for me. The note thanked me for a comment I had made recently in church and how it had really helped this person who left this on my porch. I was touched and so grateful.
December also means Mommy gets up extra early to read her scriptures by the light of the Christmas tree. One of my favorite things ever!

Bet you didn't know dinosaurs visited the nativity!

We also started our Christmas countdown activities. The kids played Christmas Headbands for one of our activities. 
Writing their letters to Santa

The boys scared me to death one night when I went to check on Caleb before I went to bed and I found Curious George in his place. They had planed a decoy Caleb and were fast asleep together in Adam's bed.